Despite the cancellation of a number of large-scale business events such as the Geneva Roadshow due to the coronavirus outbreak, British Chambers of Commerce’s annual conference went ahead as planned at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster on 5 March.
Coming less than a week before the government’s first Budget, Director General of British Chambers of Commerce Dr Adam Marshall opened the conference by calling on ministers to cut the high upfront costs facing UK businesses and to take bold steps to improve the business environment following the UK’s departure from the EU. He then introduced the key themes for the conference 2020: people, trade and infrastructure. The first of which being the focus for the morning session.
Pawel Adrjan, Head of Research EMEA at Indeed gave an illuminating insight into the latest recruitment and job seeking trends, before a panel debate took place live on stage.
Chaired by Jane Boardman, Chair of the Workplace Training and Development Commission, panellists Jason Groves, Chair of Dive In Festival, Beckie Rowland, Recruitment Advisor for Community Placements at Greggs and author Annie Auerbach discussed how to develop a more inclusive and flexible working environment and took questions from members present.
After coffee and networking, Peter Flavel, CEO of Coutts, was interviewed by BCC Co-Director Hannah Essex. As a bank famed for their affiliation with the British Royal Family, Peter Flavel surprised conference delegates by recounting Coutts’ long and proud history in commercial banking and spoke about the banks current emphasis on financing ‘latent exporters’, or businesses with export potential not yet trading overseas.
Secretary of State for Health, Matt Hancock, then took to the stage to lay out the government’s position and response to the coronavirus outbreak as journalists from national media watched on.
The Health Secretary began his speech by talking about his affiliation with the British Chambers of Commerce - much to the delight of members in the room. Mr Hancock’s mother was an active member of Suffolk Chamber of Commerce when he was a child and he became actively involved with the Chamber when he took on the family business years later. For a politician that has grown up with the Chamber, being invited to talk at the BCC annual conference was a bit like an aspiring cricketer playing at Lords, he said to rapturous applause.
Mr Hancock went on to reassure business and Chamber leaders that government was taking a cross-departmental approach to get to grips with the coronavirus outbreak. No-deal Brexit preparations had taught government a lot he said, stressing that the government's measured and scientific approach would seek to minimise the impact on businesses and the economy.
Following Mr Hancock, Greg Hands, Minister of State in the Department for International Trade, spoke about the exciting opportunities that await UK businesses overseas and urged more and more businesses to get exporting.
Emma Gilthorpe, Executive Director for Expansion at Heathrow and Clare Harbord, Executive Group Director of Corporate Affairs at Drax then spoke about the infrastructure challenges UK businesses face, before a wide-ranging panel debate on international.
Chaired by Tom Parker, President of British Chambers of Commerce EU, a panel of experts discussed the challenges of adjusting to life outside the EU and trading with third nations, before taking questions from the audience including Lauren Cohen, Chief Executive of the British Ceramics Confederation.
At the close of the conference, Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith CBE was announced as Francis Martin’s replacement as British Chambers of Commerce President. The former CEO of Mitie then gave a short speech and invited delegates to join her and network at the annual conference drinks reception, where a BEIS small business champion gave a brief presentation on work being undertaken to stamp out late payments.
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